“A really amazing ride,” is how Matt Miller, editor of Bloomberg Billionaires, describes Zuckerberg’s exploding wealth. “He was one of the richest people in tech right before Facebook’s IPO,” Miller tells The Daily Ticker. “Then Facebook basically tanked for a year… Now he’s richer than Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft (MSFT).”

The 29-year-old Zuckerberg is now number 42 on Bloomberg Billionaire’s list, with a net worth of $16.8 billion. He was number 75 before the latest Facebook earnings were released and so far this year his net worth has swelled by 37%.

Gates and Zuckerberg are amongst several tech leaders on the billionaires list which includes Larry Ellison ( ORCL), Jeff Bezos (AMZN) and Sergey Brin (GOOG).

Zuckerberg is richer than Nike co-founder Phil Knight, Rupert Murdoch, Brooklyn Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov and Laurene Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs. Jobs, of course, was one of the people Zuckerberg admired most.

“A lot of the old school tech guys will remain in the top 20, 50, 100 of the world’s richest,” says Miller. Watch the video above for more on Zuckerberg's big day and his fellow billionaires.